From the Assistant Principal 

Open Night

We can't wait to welcome new and existing families to Kalinda on Tuesday night (25th May) for our Open Night. Classrooms will be open with exciting maths games and challenges right across the school from 530-7pm. Existing families must pre-register to attend, A-K surnames 530-615pm and L-Z 615-7pm. 

New families can register via QR code in our school foyer on the night . 

At 630pm our Foundation teachers and Mr McClare are pleased to invite prospective families to an information session in the Multi Purpose Room. This is a great opportunity to learn more about the curriculum and programs at Kalinda. 

Managing Technology in your family

Increasingly, we are noticing a heavy reliance amongst our students on online messaging and games. This can be challenging on many levels, with online communication and problem solving tricky to navigate safely for children, as well as the increased vulnerability of children to undesirable messages, content or images online.  Our staff regularly include cyber-safety in our daily curriculum, however we are very concerned to notice the number of our students facing real challenges or conflict online.  

Believe me I know, that in our busy lives, it is difficult to guarantee that as parents we supervise every minute of online activity by our children but it is important that we have open communication, clear boundaries and the optimum environment for online use at home (eg. use only in an open, supervised space in the home; avoiding use of headphones during chat; and strong filters on home internet). In terms of home filters, our family has recently invested in Family Zone. This is definitely not a sponsored post when I say I would highly recommend it for some peace of mind and easy management of different devices. We are able to tailor different filters for our 7 year old, 10 year old and adults in the house. If you are interested in a similar product, check out https://www.familyzone.com/anz/families 

On Tuesday 1st June, we are pleased to be hosting a Parent Information Session lead by Martine Oglethorpe from The Modern Parent. Martine has some incredibly powerful and easy to implement tips around the use of technology by children and how we as parents can assist our children to be a part of a digital world, in a safe and useful way. She has 4 boys of her own and I personally love that she is open about embracing technology in their lives - but with reasonable boundaries. She presented to our community a few years ago and one of her most popular topics was the list of most popular new apps and what they do / which risks they may or may not present. I would highly recommend that you come along, I think you'll love it! 

Prior to the information session, Martine will be running Professional Learning for our staff with regards to the apps and platforms that our students may be talking about, what they are about, the risks involved, and how we can support a positive home/school partnership when it comes to keeping our children safe online.

Sleep!

It is no secret that we all need sleep, as parents we have quickly discovered that pre-children we really never valued it as we should....am I right?! 

One impact of reliance on digital media is that we are noticing that our students are not getting enough sleep. Senior students in particular report that they often take devices to bed or feel compelled to check messages in the night. Those students who do not take devices to bed still often report using screens until late, which we know disrupts their brains ability to settle into restful sleep. This in turn greatly impacts their ability to learn and enjoy their day.

You might find this article interesting and I would urge you to take a read.

A message from Aidan in 4C

In 2019 I came up with this way to stop the rubbish from going to the ocean and hurting marine life. 

Every Monday, Tuesday and Friday we'll be putting a song on the speakers. When this song plays, we would love if you could help by picking up some rubbish. This will help keep our school clean.

Now I’m sure everyone wants to know what the song will be.!

The new song is... dance monkey!

If you are not happy about this song, well, we can always change it next year. When this song goes on, I hope that you will pick up rubbish, even if you are in the middle of a game. Just stop what you are doing and please, pick up some rubbish.

Thank you everyone for reading. Have a great day!

We are kind. We are resilient. We are respectful.